BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA--Tuesday, January 5, 2010 -- The Free
Software Foundation (FSF) has announced the 2010 dates for its
LibrePlanet international free software community conference. The
three day event will be held in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the Harvard
University Science Center, from March 19th to March 21st, 2010.

"LibrePlanet 2010 will be a great chance for both new and experienced
free software users to learn about the latest developments with the
GNU operating system; participate in workshops, presentations, and
lightning talks about key free software projects; discuss practical
steps in free software advocacy; and collaborate with others at the
conference on code and activism," said FSF's executive director Peter
Brown.

As part of the event, the FSF will also be organizing the first US
edition of the GNU Hackers' Meetings that GNU maintainers and
contributors have been hosting in Europe since 2007. Prominent GNU
contributors already planning to come to the conference include
Electronic Frontier Foundation co-founder John Gilmore, Emacs
maintainer Chong Yidong, GNU Scientific Library maintainer Brian
Gough, and GNU LibreDWG maintainers Felipe Sanches and Rodrigo
Rodrigues da Silva.

Gilmore will also be giving a keynote speech to the full conference
along with FSF president Richard Stallman. Further details about the
schedule of presentations will be announced in the coming weeks, and
will emphasize a track highlighting women's participation in free software.

The FSF is expanding the conference this year from two days to three
to facilitate the GNU Hackers' Meeting and to add more time for
collaboration on code and free software activism projects among
attendees. Speaker proposals for workshops, presentations or lighting talks will be accepted until January 31st.

FSF's operations manager John Sullivan explained, "The number one
suggestion from last year was to create more space and time for people
to act on the exciting ideas that were coming up during presentations
and discussions. That's exactly what LibrePlanet is about -- so many
other conferences are about how to best make use of the free software
community toward other ends; LibrePlanet is about how to build and
strengthen that community as an end in itself."

LibrePlanet 2010 attendance is free to FSF associate members, with
nonmembers who are committed to the ideals of software freedom paying
a $60 registration fee to cover conference costs. Space is limited to
250, so the FSF is requesting RSVPs at
http://groups.fsf.org/wiki/LibrePlanet2010 or by mail to membership@fsf.org.

About the FSF

The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to
promoting computer users' right to use, study, copy, modify, and
redistribute computer programs. The FSF promotes the development and
use of free (as in freedom) software -- particularly the GNU
operating system and its GNU/Linux variants -- and free
documentation for free software. The FSF also helps to spread
awareness of the ethical and political issues of freedom in the use
of software, and its Web sites, located at fsf.org and gnu.org, are
an important source of information about GNU/Linux. Donations to
support the FSF's work can be made at http://donate.fsf.org. Its
headquarters are in Boston, MA, USA.